Written By: Rachael Schuit and Brittany Harlow
(OKLAHOMA) After years of work and countless hours put in by numerous criminal justice advocates, the Oklahoma Survivor’s Act (OSA) finally went into effect this month.
Senate Bill 1835, signed by Governor Kevin Stitt in May, allows courts to issue lower sentences to survivors whose crimes relate to the abuse they endured.
Its retroactivity also allows survivors who are currently behind bars to apply to have their sentences reduced if their crime was related to their abuse.
Survivors like April Wilkens, the first case to be filed under OSA.
Wilkens has been serving a life sentence since 1998 for killing her ex-fiancé during an assault.
The day OSA went into effect, the Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice filed a 422-page request to apply for resentencing at the Tulsa County District Court on Wilkens’s behalf.
The court filing states, “Ms. Wilkens presents a strong case for resentencing under the act. She was 28 years old and a victim of extreme physical, sexual, and psychological abuse when she committed the instant offense.”
It also states that under OSA, “Specifically, a sentence of LIFE like Ms. Wilken’s, shall be reduced to twenty five years or less for eligible domestic violence survivors.”
Wilkens has already served 26 years and counting.
“Even the district attorneys who prosecuted her were forced to concede that she was the victim of domestic violence — and yet they still sought the harshest sentence possible under the law,” Oklahoma Appleseed posted on social media after the filing. “We are proud to have been a part of advocating for the Oklahoma Survivors’ Act so that we could reach this moment right now–a chance at justice and freedom for our client. April is excited at the possibility that she will get to be with her son again, and get to meet her grandchild for the first time.”
Wilkens has been denied both parole and commutation, but told VNN earlier this year it felt “incredibly validating” that lawmakers and the governor are standing with abuse survivors like her through OSA.
“Thank God for Senator Greg Treat, Representative Jon Echols, all of the lawmakers who voted for the Oklahoma Survivors’ Act, and all of our fierce advocates who helped make this much-needed law happen,” Wilkens said.
Related Story: Support for Oklahoma’s abused women builds at Capitol
“This is the first time in Oklahoma history that violent offenses have been eligible for resentencing, and therefore is the first chance to end the suffering of survivors languishing behind bars,” The Sentencing Project, another force behind Senate Bill 1835’s passage, posted on social media after OSA went into effect.
